http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
DURING this Tragedy TV era, when the mainstream media rarely focus on more
than one story at a time, a lot of important news is either left unreported or
woefully underreported. Such is the case with a recent RAND Institute study,
which essentially tells us that we are eating ourselves to death. Researchers
report that a stunning three out of five Americans are overweight, causing
more chronic health troubles than smoking, heavy drinking and being poor.

While we were busy becoming the world's sole superpower, the United
States was supersizing itself to superporker status. In "Fast Food Nation,"
author Eric Schlosser brilliantly chronicles how the growth of our
Extra-Crispy-Double-Whopper-Curly-Q- Fried-Happy-Meal food industry
transformed the way Americans eat and live. It is undeniable that it also
helped us get to our current XXXL condition. This means sharp increases in
our susceptibility to arthritis, heart disease, asthma and diabetes and makes
our ability to carry out even life's simplest tasks more difficult.

Other recent studies paint a more ominous picture. Children who are
excessively overweight may be creating permanent heart damage, according
to doctors at the University of Cincinnati. This is especially alarming because
experts today estimate that 30% of U.S. children are seriously overweight; in
the 1960s that figure was about 3%.

NEWS ISN'T PRETTY
The fat news gets worse. Harvard researchers reported last week in Archives
of Internal Medicine that weight considered acceptable by the federal
government may still pose serious health risks. Women who fall into the "high
healthy" range of body mass index (BMI) — obtained by dividing weight by
height squared — now must think twice before they choose the 2% over skim
milk. Compared to women of lower body weight, these women are twice as
likely to develop diabetes, 40% more likely to have high blood pressure and
30% more likely to have colon cancer. The statistics are equally as troubling
for men in the same range. Conclusion: Lose the extra 10!

There is, of course, no shortage of breathless commentary on our obsession
with being thin. Columnist Ellen Goodman recently reminded us that "women
have lost their lives in pursuit of thinner thighs." And spending a week in Los
Angeles can make even a full-time aerobics instructor feel like a blob. After a
few days, I found myself pinching the side of my stomach — a
self-administered BMI test! Eventually, I came to my senses and had a
Baskin-Robbins mint-chip cone.

To be sure, anorexia and bulimia are serious medical disorders, but they also
tend to be an affliction of the upper class. Obesity or being overweight is a
condition that crosses socioeconomic lines.

STOP OVERLOOKING ISSUE
So now that we know how dangerous obesity is, it's time to get serious about
it. But while it's trendy to wage a war against "Big Tobacco" and noble to
continue the "war against poverty," we don't much like taking ourselves to the
mat for being fat. Teachers tell our children the dangers of smoking before
sending them off to the cafeteria for their fill of pizza and cheeseburgers,
washed down with chocolate milk.

In Washington these days, talk of trimming the fat from the federal budget is
considered smart politics. But how many politicians have the stomach,
literally, to speak credibly about the perils of having a big gut?

Of course, studies on the health costs of obesity will lead some to call for
more government regulation or even class-action litigation against the food
industry's fat peddlers. Neither route would get to the heart of the matter.
Like so many of our social pathologies, this one was created one day at a
time, one family at a time, by individuals who repeatedly make bad choices. If
we don't wake up soon, we'll see drive-through funeral services popping up in
the same strip malls as our drive-through food
chains.